Vlad's rides thread

[vlad01]

Yep, biggest leak by far is the quarter glass. They pour water in when they perish.

This wasn't actually leaking on the white car, but was going to sooner or later. On the shitbox, it was merely a weep and that car I think was the worst case, as you can see it's seal was total trash and yet the leaking was very minimal. Lucky to be a teaspoon after a long days rain and only some days, not all days that rained.

You can certainly make some seals from self adhesive foam rubber from Clark Rubber. I recommend the neoprene foam self adhesive rolls there. You'll probably have to cut them down to the right width. I get the 50mm wide so I can make most seals as I need.

I actually just bought brand new vents since I got them for about $40 each, mainly to save time and piss farting around making seals. I have less energy these days and new vents were available for a price I was willing to trade money for not having to expend physical and mental effort for. You can't by the seals separate, they come part of the vents. Plus I wasn't sure on the original uncompressed seal thickness. Looks to be around 6-7mm thick when new, now that I had the new vents in hand.

[vlad01]

Car is up and running! Finally!

Before I took it out, I sorted this little bit that's always bugged me. The clutch fork covers sold by Rares is based on the V8 one, so even though it fits, it has a gaping hole with one corner missing when fitted to the V6.

I had plenty of 0.1mm 304 shim stock left over from another totally unrelated project. So I made this bit up using one of my spare covers as a template.

Then I stuck it on with some of that same aluminium foil tape.

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Fits like a glove And that should keep the dust and crap out from contaminating stuff in the clutch and fork etc...

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I started the car, and as expected due to how it felt like, my Y pipe union on the driver side didn't seat right, I had an exhaust leak there. But over a few min it almost went by itself. I figured with the heating that the expansion and vibration was allowing it to settle into place where I couldn't get it to by hand.

I turned it off, let it cool a bit (still instantly burnt me, forgot that the HPC keeps the heat in like crazy), jacked it up a little and reaching in with the socket and spanner, yep it was a bit loose on both sides as expected due to settling in. I tightened it up, and zero leaks now, good as gold.


I then ran the car up the road and back, for a few Ks. Tested the cruise control virtual neural safety cut out, worked perfect! I love it when you spend a lot of time getting it right but in you're head you are only 80% confident it will work, and then it works! Fookin mint!

Got back, dumped the ATF and oil.

With much research I ended up going with Penrite 10 Tenths premium 10w60. Lots of details on why, but too much to write I think.


On the drive I found my wiper and washer to not work again. I had this a few times over the last few years and it came good each time. Well, I got to the bottom of the problem and it was a super easy fix.
Not sure how I didn't look into it to find such an obvious one.

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The car drives great (apart from the shit handling since I have not done anything to the front end yet, other than the rack.)

I found the engine to vibrate a bit around that 1600 rpm like the balance shaft is missing, but seeing how the mirror looks on decel, it's obvious it's the mounts. They are a bit stiffer than any OEM one I have used, and I guess the mod to the driver side one only makes that worse. All other RPMs are good though and at it's worst, it still miles better than any solid/non OEM performance mount. I fully expect as it ages in, they will soften and settle a bit and it should improve.

The box whines a bit in 3rd on accel, nothing too crazy but noticeable. Slightly on the other gears too, same under load. I had Tony from Astro tell me that if its on accel and not decel, then the backlash is within spec and not too much. So likely just wearing in or a slight helix angle mismatch given there are like 3 brands of gears in there, with Tremec having dropped production on most of them. It seems to have quietened some already and I have only driven like 10ks so far, I am sure it will be fine. The shitbox actually whines on all except 4-5, both accel and decel and its gears, although used and mix/matched, were all in top shape. So that tells me it's nothing to stress about and it should dull off over time from the new box sharp whine to the well seasoned box whine, or no whine at all perhaps.

Importantly, I need to do lots of frequent fluid changes to keep wear particles contamination as low as possible for the next several K, to prolong the life of the box into the future


The shift quality is pretty good, but downshift quality and effort on all gears, even with large rpm gaps is absolutely unreal

The money, time and effort spent on the bellhousing and clutch work was well worth it. I can't even describe how easy it goes into gear when plowing down though the gears on a brisk decel. No manual car has even shifted down gears that effortless for me period.

I feel like the box could shift at infinite rpm lol. The effort didn't feel like it changes at all from almost no rpm delta to a large delta. Normally all manuals I have driven increase in effort as the rpm delta between gears increases. I felt none that I recall. It was really weird to experience, but this is a good weird haha.


Next on the list it to pick up the adjustable panhard from Pedders tomorrow for a reasonable price of 223 bucks. I was originally going to use Superpro there, but their bar was going up and up and up, now listed over 400 bucks in most places, I can't justify that sort of money for eventually a metal rod and a pair of bushes. I don't even need the adjustment, I just need one that is bent to clear the exhaust.

I am trying out Pedders bits and pieces for this build since I did have a good impression on their sports shocks for standard height in my red VP when I first bought it, felt very close to Bilstein, but they are all OEM in fitment, none of the stuffing around and compromises that Bilsein have.

I figured since Pedders stuff is certified, they should be safe with the panhard, a lot of the ones on the market are random no names and you just don't know with the weld quality, with the Pedders one, they have to back the product by law, same as Superpro. But the Pedders one looks like the same construction more or less for half the price, or should I say for a realistic price for what it is.

The guy at Centreline suspension in Thomastown highly recommended the Pedders OEM strut tops. He said that they are the only ones that have good rubber on them and they have two sets of stud holes, so you can adjust them somewhat by relocating the studs and mixing left to right in combo to get all sorts of adjustments.

So my plan is a full set of their standard height sports shocks, the top mounts and the panhard bar. Starting with the panhard tomorrow since that is all I can spare my cash on for now.

Their shocks are not cheap btw, pretty comparable to Bilstein at the time I bought them for the red VP.